Common Essay Errors

Flood Essays (individual)

Forbidden Personal Pronouns!

Academic literary analysis essays MAY NOT have the following pronouns in them: I, we, us, our, ourselves, my, me, myself, mine, you, your(s), yourself.

These pronouns may ONLY be used in direct quotes from the text!

You will receive a 0 on your essay if you use the pronouns!

Summary

Summary is given in the introduction of the essay, not in the body paragraphs.

Make connections to the thesis in the body paragraphs; don’t just retell the stories!

Quotes

Citations (Gilgamesh, 7) or Gilgamesh says, “--------.” (7)

Punctuation goes inside the quotes. Explain the quotes, don’t end the paragraph with

one! In c/c essays you must use quotes from BOTH

pieces of literature! Avoid this quote says/means. Just say it! It should

be obvious that you’re explaining it!

“Title”

Do NOT give the assignment title. Be creative! Try to connect your title with your thesis or your “so what” statement in your conclusion!

12 point font, not bold, not underlined

Literary Present Tense

Write about literature as if it is happening now; not in the past.

Use verbs like says, does, etc. (not said, did, etc.)

Using the literary present tense correctly will boost your word choice scores!

Fragments and weird sentences

Have someone read your essay aloud to you! It’s best if someone that’s helping you to edit does this.

If someone else isn’t available, read it aloud to yourself.

If something sounds weird or like it may be a fragment, circle or underline it and FIX it!

Pronoun agreement

If one drops their book, it may tear. One and their do NOT agree. “One” is singular and “their” is plural!

If one drops his book, it may tear. (Use his or her or use his/her.)

If students drop their books, they may tear.

Drafts

Rough draft: in pen or pencil, may be typed if you wish. Shows obvious editing marks.

Polished draft: better than the rough draft, TYPED, and editing marks may be obvious. If changes aren’t noted on the polished draft, I should be able to SEE changes between the polished draft and the final draft!

Final draft: clean, nearly perfect draft. NOT another polished draft printed out!

Flood Essay Revision

Use the previous slides to make changes to your essay.

Submit your revised essay with all other drafts to me by 10/24!